Earthquake

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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:00 am

B***y Hell - just had an massive earth quake in Birmingham - UK @ 00:58, lasted for about 15 Seconds!!

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:03 am

Same here! ...weird

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:07 am

Just felt it on the Wirral.
Weird.
That's only the second time I've ever experienced one.

First time was more vivid. In Japan.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:12 am

How bad was it? Everyone okay?

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:17 am

Brits are quite ok with things like that.
Stiff upper lip and all.

Hmmmm, tremble through the limbs.
Yes; ok, lets move on. Smile

Elite Baiter Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 1455

Phew - that's alright then. Felt it while down in East Anglia.
Main worry was that I was going off my head and imagined it?

So where was it then? Only last about 5 secs here, so must've been somewhere closer to Brummie land?

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 1267

Global Warming?

Laughing

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:30 am

I suppose 4.8 is respectable although on the low side. I wouldn't get out of bed for less than 4.0.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:33 am

I felt it and I'm just north of London. BBC says it was felt in Manchester as well. Latest news is that the epicentre is "Hull" (Kingston-on-Hull is 200 miles from me).

I estimated it as ~5 seconds, and I think I felt an aftershock a few minutes later.

That's my second one in 6 months!

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:41 am

BBC news report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7266136.stm

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

Seismology link HERE
google map of epicentre won't post link properly, keeps blowing out the forum for me. It is under maps on the above link

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:01 am

Ginger Head wrote:

Main worry was that I was going off my head and imagined it?

Same here...well that was my second thought, first was that someone was trying to break in the back door...

@Zen, that puts me at the epicentre then Razz

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:15 am

I hope everyone is OK over there! Shocked

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:40 am

Weasel, we'll all be fine.
Brits are very stoical.
Earthquake? . . . . . . Yes they happen.
Move on.
What next?

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:41 am

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:46 am

Zen wrote:

... Kingston-on-Hull ...

I got off the ferry from Rotterdam there once. I really had to laugh at the **HUGE** sign saying "DRIVE ON THE LEFT SIDE!"

But I doubt that has anything to do with the earthquake, which I didn't feal here btw.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:47 am

Glad to hear everyone is okay but don't forget to apply for U.S. disaster aid.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:08 am

This from my former Astronomy Professor,

"Hi Joe Tam, (Anon name, as usual.)
Good to hear from you. Regarding your ideas about the lunar eclipse and
earthquakes, I know
of no one who can predict earthquakes. However, the position of the Moon,
Earth and Sun that
allows for eclipses physically means that there is an alignment in all
three and that results
in what is called "spring tides." This creates higher high tides and lower
low tides. This gravitational
force also creates tidal effects in the Earth. If the conditions in the
Earth are near or are poised
to create a shift or displacement that could accelerate the shifting
processes in the Earth, then
I think this additional tidal force could develop an earthquake. One never
knows where this weak spot might be, but something somewhere could exceed a
threshold and produce a quake.

Well, that's my 2 cents worth about this subject.

Drop by the Observatory sometime.

Take care,

Robert"

This in regards to the quake that hit Eastern Nevada at 6.0 during the sygyzy last week on a somewhat dormant fault line.

P.S. You should see this Obseratory! 16 inch Takahashi scopes don't come cheap. And I still can't spell very well.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:49 am

Showing my naivet� here, I didn't realize England was quake-prone... I've been through far more than my share in California and it's never fun. I'm glad it wasn't more serious. I still have very vivid memories of the '89 Loma Prieta quake. Shocked

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:50 am

Quote:

BBC says it was felt in Manchester as well

Certainly was. First time in ages I was getting a decent night's kip & the bloody thing woke me up. Sad

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:57 am

We get all sorts here but hardly ever extreme.
for instance:
When it snows we usually get nearly an inch and everything grinds to a halt.
Heavy rain causes a bit of flooding and some furniture gets wet.
A big freeze means it takes a few minutes for the car to defrost.
In a heatwave people go out without a coat or umbrella.
An Earthquake causes damage to several chimneys.
We haven't got any volcanos or anything silly like that.
The exception was the 1987 hurricane which caused huge damage over parts of Southern England. I slept through it and copped a fortune in overtime Very Happy

We are a remarkably stoic people though; after any disaster there is a general sense of "we're ok" followed by laughter and merriment; after the 7/7 bombings the attitude of people seemed to be that we survived the luftwaffe, a few exploding bastards aren't going to stop us doing what we do.
It's what's made Britain the greatest country in the world

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:28 am

I'm glad that everyone is okay. I have been through earthquakes too.
We had a 6.5 quake here in '93. Lots of damage and two people were
killed. We still have small ones that are hardly felt if at all.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:46 am

I'd only just got to sleep and the bloody thing woke me up. A 5 second shaking then a shorter burst just after. The really odd thing is that the first thing I thought was earthquake, then I completely dismissed it and told myself I was being ridiculous. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:06 am

Mmmm, I remember the '86 Edgecumbe earthquake here in NZ, that was 7.6 or 7.8. It caused a 70 tonne railway locomotive to be thrown onto its side.

The paper mill near the epicentre lost all power and had some major structural damage to the plant. One problem they had was the loss of electrical power to the chlorine refrigeration plant, they had about 300 tonnes of liquid chlorine which was threatening to boil off and there were about 10,000 people in danger downwind. They had an emergency diesel powered generator for the chlorine refrigeration system but, with no electricity in the rest of the plant, so they couldn't get any more diesel out from the underground tanks to keep the chlorine refrigeration generator running. I worked for the fuel company at the time, and had to drive down with a small generator to provide power to the fuel pumps so they could get diesel out to run the chlorine refrigeration system emergency generator. The town had been cut off by slips onto the coast road, and I had to drive through behind a loader so it could pull me out if I got stuck.

By the way, the Richter scale is exponential. I think that the energy released by an earthquake is 30 times greater with every full point increase and 1000 times greater for a 2 point increase.

Mind you, for peole unused to earthquakes, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake would be rather frightening.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:26 am

Apparently we felt it in Worcestershire. I was asleep however.